Stranger In The Woods
by devarlbea
Summary: All it took was a stranger covered in blood stumbling onto Sam Uley's lawn at 10 PM. Two days later she was living with Charlie and Bella Swan and pushing Bella to her limits. She hated Bella and Bella hated her. Why? Bella hated that the girl was speaking the truth-that she was being a pathetic child waiting for the wrong man while she had the perfect one in front of her.
1. Prologue: The Little Cabin

Prologue: The Little Cabin

Standing at the edge of the woods she stared at the little, brown cabin. She could feel the small amount of energy she had left draining quickly and she knew she needed help, and fast. She started stumbling toward the cabin, hoping someone was home. She was ten feet away from the door when it burst open, light spilling onto the lawn and momentarily blinding her eyes that had become so accustomed to the darkness of the forest. A large figure stood there, the light outlining his frame as he took her in, every bloody and bruised inch of her.

Her clothes were muddy and bloody, not a single piece of the cloth hinting at the original color. Scratches littered her arms and her face had one large bruise on the left cheek. The cuts in her clothes were the only indicator that the injuries responsible for the blood were covered. She swayed and took a step forward, "Please, help me," she heard voices in the background laughing and a shout to the man in the door, asking who was there. "He's coming."

"Who's coming?" The man asked, "Emily!"

She swayed again, taking more steps until she was close enough to look up into his face, "H-help. He will find me. I just know-" She fell forward, his arms coming around her immediately as a short woman with dark hair appeared at his elbow.

"Who's that? What happened to her?" She asked, following him to the couch, concern washing over her for the strange girl.

"I don't know," He said while the woman fluttered around the cabin getting towels and medical supplies. The other two men in the cabin were silent as they watched the scene. "All she said was that she needed help and a man is coming for her. She looked terrified and she's covered in blood. She came from the forest."

"None of you smelled her during your patrols? How could you not?" The woman asked, wiping the blood from the girl.

"I don't know," He answered, almost to himself, "None of us smelled anything, so she must have ran into our patrol circle just today, you know it's the only day we've had off."

The woman nodded, her eyes widening as she uncovered various bruises and cuts. She couldn't understand how this girl could have survived in the woods with all the blood loss she must have gone through. The animals must have hounded her while the rain froze her, since her clothes were nothing more than tatters hanging loosely on her body. She didn't look like a victim of malnutrition so she had to have found something to eat, which was good or she would have probably died out there.

"How does she look, Emily? Does she need Sue?" The man asked, kneeling at her side.

"No, she lost some blood, which paired with exhaustion and a drop in adrenaline, made her pass out. She has cuts and bruises but she'll be fine. She just needs some food and water when she wakes up." Emily said, standing and going into the bedroom off the living room.

The phone rang loudly throughout the now silent cabin. One of the other men answered, "Hello?"

A pause followed by, "Damn, we have a situation here. Okay, give us one minute," He hung up and turned to the man by the couch, "Quil just phased, Sam. Billy said he's running around outside, wild. Jake's with him, trying to calm him down, but you know how pissed he is these days."

"Shit. Okay, Jared, you and me will go, Paul you stay here. I don't need you pissing him off. But phase if anyone shows up here, she did say a man was coming for her," Sam said, already halfway through the door. Paul rolled his eyes and plopped down in the chair next to the couch.

"Fine. I don't want to deal with the little brat," He heaved a long sigh. "I'll just eat your food."

He was ignored and they were gone a second later. Emily was back with clothes in her arms, "Help me get her in these clothes. I don't think she'll mind so much that you see her in her underwear, considering."

He nodded and helped sit the girl up, Emily slipping her shirt off and shock registering on his face when he saw all the bruises and cuts-completely ignoring the fact that she was bra-less. How was this girl still walking until twenty minutes ago? She had a deep gash trailing from the bottom of her right breast to her hip and a huge bruise along the ribs on the same side. She had several smaller, though still relatively deep, cuts on her left shoulder, and small but dark bruises covered her left side, as though fingers were pressed into her again and again.

"Hold her while I-_oh, my God!_" He quickly looked at the girls back and nausea plagued his stomach. Her back was full of whip marks, not over two weeks old. "I have to clean and sterilize this or she's going to get infected." She thanked the gods that the girl was pretty knocked out while she took another towel and antiseptic to her injuries.

"Is she gonna need stitches?" Paul asked, trying to hold her arms, the least injured part of her besides her face, firmly but softly. He had noticed she wasn't wearing a bra now and tried to keep his eyes off her by looking at the wall behind her.

"It doesn't look like it," Emily said, "Whoever did this made sure they weren't deep enough for her to bleed out while also making them as painful and deep as possible."

Emily finished and put the flannel on her, her cheeks turning red when she realized her charge wasn't wearing under garments. She glanced at Paul and smiled when she saw he was carefully avoiding looking at the girl. Maybe he wasn't a total loss. "Okay, you can look now. I'm quite proud of you for that."

"Emily, she's covered in cuts and bruises. I don't think now is the time for that," He said, laying her back on the couch. "Her complexion is darker than a pale face. Do you think she's mixed? We know she couldn't have been allowed to tan or whatever."

"Maybe," Emily said, checking for underwear before she pulled down the girl tattered sweatpants and exposed her to Paul. She had none. "Paul, I can get her pants, can you go get some tea going? I think I need some. There's some whiskey for you, you know where,"

"Thanks, Em," He said, getting up and retreating to the kitchen quickly. She made quick work of the girls pants and cleaned her legs, thankful that there was only bruises around her hips and small scratches from, most likely, foliage in the woods. She put the pair of clean sweatpants on her and sat in the chair, accepting the cup of tea from Paul minutes later. "Now all we do is wait," He said, pulling a wooden chair under one of the two windows in the small room.

"Now all we do is wait." She repeated, sipping at her tea and thinking about the mystery girl on her couch.

Four hours later Sam and Jared came through the door looking tired and irritated. Sam went straight to the kitchen and poured a glass of whiskey, one for Jared and one for himself. Jared was sitting on the floor by the chair and Sam picked Emily up, setting her on his lap as he sat back down, "How is our stranger? I told Billy and he wants me to call when she wakes up with any information-such as her name. I told him she looks half native and he knows most of the names from the surrounding reservations."

"She's clean and in clean clothes. She has multiple wounds that will take a few weeks to heal but her back is the worst. It looks like someone shredded it, it's so full of whip marks. She has bruises around her hips that bother me, too," Emily said, her worried expression not leaving the girl on her couch. "How old do you think she is?"

"Around 18, I'd say. Not over 20 I'm sure. I just want to know her story. She should have died in that forest. It's dark and deep and full of animals that would have smelled all the blood on her. Were there any animals wounds?" Sam asked, kissing the top of Emily's head and rubbing up and down her arm.

"No," Emily said, leaning into Sam's embrace. "I'm hoping she'll wake soon."

"It's late, Em. You should go in and sleep. I can stay and watch over her. Jared and Paul, can-"

"No, I'll watch her. You haven't slept in two days and you're going to need it with Quil now phased, how did that go?" Emily said, getting up and putting a blanket over the girl before sitting back down.

"Paul and Jared, can you patrol until 8? That's six hours. I'll relieve you so I can show Quil the reins," Paul saluted him as they left and Sam turned to Emily, "It was fine for the most part. Quil is happy to finally be in the loop and Jake is...Jake. He doesn't want this because of how close he was getting to Bella."

"Why-"

"I forbade him to see her right now," Sam explained. "He's pissed about phasing and he doesn't have any control. He doesn't need to see her and make things worse."

"Oh, Sam," Emily sighed, "He's going to be even harder to control now. You know how much he loves her."

"I know," Sam said, setting the cup on the floor, "But he shouldn't. She has nothing to give him, nothing she even wants to give him. She's so hung up on that leech that she's letting herself die. She's killing herself over a bastard that left her in the middle of the woods. She's being such an idiotic girl. She even knew he was a bloodsucker from the beginning! It's not right."

"I know," Emily said, "But you've said yourself that the Cullen's are different. Maybe he was nice to her and normal enough."

"He treated her like a child. Always dictating what she did, wore, who she saw," Sam spat, "Billy told me what Charlie said. Charlie always knew something was wrong with him. Never understood how Bella could let someone make choices for her like that. He said she used to be so full of life and fire, so independent. He doesn't understand where it all went." He ran a hand over his eyes, exhausted from the day.

"Go in to bed, I'll wake you up at eight or if she wakes," Emily said, shooing Sam toward the bedroom.

"Go or you'll regret it." She pointed to the room, a stern expression and hand on the hip in place. Sam laughed and leaned forward to kiss her before heading to the bedroom and falling asleep soon after laying down. Emily smiled at the closed door before making her way to the kitchen to wash the few cups and then grabbed her novel and settled into the chair to wait, falling asleep minutes later with her phone alarm set for 7:30 AM just in case she fell asleep-knowing she would fall asleep.


	2. Chapter 1: Sparrow Ryder

**_First, I have to say I don't own anything you might recognize as being written by S. Meyer. This goes for all chapters for this entire story._**

**_Second, I have to say Thank you! to my Beta, Fran Osuch, you helped my first chapter turn out less confusing than it would have been. =]_**

**_Thirdly, thanks for the comments I got on the prologue and I hope you like this chapter as much, or more, than it._**

**_P.s. Instead of Jake phasing, I changed the prologue to QUIL phasing, since this is at the END of New Moon. So besides that, the prologue is the same. But I hope that alleviates any confusion...thanks and enjoy!_**

**_P.S.S. [[A couple people have told me about the Chinese characters and missing sentence segments. I'm so sorry about that! I looked it over and didn't even see them when I posted it! I've fixed it, I hope this makes more sense! Thank you for letting me know!_**

**_-devin_**

**Chapter 1: Sparrow Ryder**

I was out of the forest. The musty smell of damp leaves and the sounds of wildlife and wind were gone. There was no feel of forest floor beneath me. Oh! My eyes snapped open and a tall, beamed ceiling came into focus. The sight of lights, stumbling into a yard, and being carried inside rushed back to me. I sat up and winced; fingering along the side of my ribcage, I found the two broken ones.

I fell against the couch and inhaled sharply. The stinging sensation running all over my back reminded me of the vicious whipping I had gotten. He always made sure my punishments were bloody and deep, ensuring the wounds stayed. They were punishments that would kill weaker people. I sat up again and stretched as best as I could, taking stock of the injuries that hadn't had time to heal because of my trek through the forest. My eyes fell to a woman in a chair beside the couch and I felt myself tighten in defense. The three, long claw marks running from her hairline to her neck, disappearing under her shirt, told me there was danger even if my rational mind recognized them as scars long since healed. My eyes scanned through the room and the hallway. It was a homey cabin despite its smallness. It smelled like Miss Amelia's, like food and home. The additional scent of animal mingled with man reminded me that there was a predator here. I could hear deep, steady breathing coming from the hallway, most likely a bedroom.

I stood and walked to the hallway. There were two closed doors and an open door that belonged to the bathroom. I kept my focus on the breathing behind the door at the end and shut the bathroom door behind me. I made use of the toilet and inspected my body. The cuts and bruises were nothing I wasn't used to and while the long gash on my side stung, it was cleaned and healed well enough to not need the bandages. I took the bandages from my back and without too much pain managed to see the damage. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but that was probably only because of the woman cleaning them. I washed my hands and face and laughed at the pants rolled up on my calves. She must have lent me her clothes, her way too short clothes, and not wanted me to suffer the awkward way they would dangle. It was a nice gesture that most wouldn't think of so I was even more grateful to her.

I placed the towel back on the rack and heard footsteps outside the door. I opened the door to find a huge man standing there with his arms crossed. He was at least eight inches taller than my five foot eight frame, and with his short hair and thick muscles he was an intimidating figure. It didn't help that it looked as if he had never smiled in his life. I leaned against the doorway and crossed my arms as we stared at each other. He was trying to intimidate me and it wasn't going to work. I couldn't think of one thing that would. He was the source of the mingled scent, the scent of a shifter. He had a faint accompanying smell of...wilderness that all shifters had but it was diminishing. Every shifter had a different degree of the wilderness scent; the scent depended on how in control of the animal the person was. This man was in control of his animal. I almost rolled my eyes at this but remembered the woman's face. He was in control because of her, _for_ her.

"Are you going to stare at me all day?" I finally asked him.

"You smell different," His voice told me he knew I wasn't completely human.

"I'm quite familiar with your scent, shifter."

His brows furrowed and his stance stiffened, "How?"

"I'm familiar with shifters," I answered with a shrug.

He looked surprised, "Does your tribe carry the gene?"

"Some," I watched his face. He was storing every word I said, cataloging everything I did. "I'm a shifter."

"You're a woman," He was surprised again.

I chuckled, "So?" His eyes narrowed. "We're more common than you think. I'm surprised your tribe has none."

"We've never heard of any other shifters, let alone women being able. Shifting is a closely guarded secret in most circles." He uncrossed his arms and held one out to me like an 1800's Englishman holding open a door for his lady, "Let's go outside. I don't want to wake Emily."

I gave him an amused look that he didn't catch as I walked. His gaze was fixed on her, Emily. There were chairs surrounding a fire pit further from the house and I made my way to them. He sat in the chair next to mine, angling it so he was looking straight at me. We were staring at each other again.

"Where am I?" I asked. I looked in the thick forest and almost sighed. It looked like Oregon. If I was still in Oregon I was going to scream.

"La Push," he said. "A reservation next to Forks, Washington."

Thank the Spirits! "Perfect," I was visibly relieved and his brows were pulled together again. "I need to see the Chief, William Black, and the Alpha.

"You're in the right place," he said. He leaned forward and his expression was suddenly more professional. "I'm the Alpha, Sam Uley. What's your name?"

"Sparrow," I considered not giving him my last name but knew he would insist. "Sparrow Ryder."

He didn't immediately catch it but I watched comprehension travel across his face. "Ryder? As in..." He paused; his eyes were permanently narrowed, I swear. "As in the Texan Apache Chief? What relation are you?"

"Granddaughter," I said. He wouldn't want to take me to William, not with my family. He had no way to know they didn't care, unless you count my uncle, and no way to know that I didn't live there anymore. That I hadn't lived there for at least two years.

"Not to be rude, but what the hell? If they find you here they won't listen to explanations. They will destroy this reservation, since you say they are shifters as well. I would rather not get into a fight with another tribe, especially yours, over you simply being here. The Blackfoot tribe is proof of what they can do. They are almost gone." He was pissed.

"They don't care about me. I haven't been there in two years and Grandfather didn't have any opinion of it when my uncle dragged me out of there. He agreed that I needed to be separated from the area to learn my place," I leaned back and folded my legs onto the chair. I closed my eyes when the breeze picked up, enjoying the peace I felt at being outside. My eyes opened and Sam was watching me, his face showing that he was thrown off guard at my abrupt departure from the conversation. "The only one who will care and look for me is my uncle, Cochise."

"Cochise?" He asked. I nodded. "You're Mohan's and Kimana's daughter, aren't you?" I nodded again, not surprised that he knew them. My mother had visited this area a lot. "I knew your mother, not your father. I know your mother's brother, too. Charlie."

"Charles Swan? He lives here?" I remembered him from when I was a girl. My mother and I would visit him, before her death and Cochise taking me to Texas.

"Yes, in Forks," he said. I could tell he was surprised I knew him. I just kept surprising him, didn't I?

"Doesn't he have a wife and a daughter? Isabella, right?" Sam's face darkened at the mention of her and the air around him seemed to tense with his body.

"Yes," his voice was strained, "She moved here from her mother's in Arizona a couple years ago."

"What's wrong with her?" He laughed at my blunt question and the tension fell away. His face lightened and I smiled in response. "You should smile more." He stopped laughing and watched blankly as I took his hand. His eyes found mine, echoing his confusion,

"What?"

"I can tell you don't smile often," I told him. I found myself pulling my chair closer to his and grasping his hand tighter; I was suddenly anxious to help him and I didn't know why, "You should smile and laugh as much as you can. I saw her scars," He tried to pull away but I shook my head and held onto him tightly. "You need to let go. She loves you, forgives you. Or she wouldn't be here. You obviously did what you could. You loved her, supported her, and exercised control over your animal. It's time for you to let go," His face was frozen in shock and his mouth was pressed in a hard line. Emotions were warring behind his eyes and I continued before he could dismiss me. "It's happened, it's in the past. Forgiving yourself would make her happy. It would let her let go completely, too. If she loves you as much as you love her, she will see your guilt. And it will remind her every day of what happened and how the sight of her upsets you because you're stuck in the past. Let go."

He was quiet for a while; I watched the depression and guilt in his eyes overcome his face and for the second time in my life I felt a connection with someone. A connection that wasn't tainted by circumstance or necessity; just a simple connection with someone who lived with pain like I did. He finally found his voice, "How did you know? How did you know it was _me_?"

"It's in the way you look at her. The sadness and love you have in your eyes. The way you clenched your fists when I looked at her on the way outside, like I was going to start throwing accusations at you." I rubbed my thumb up and down his hand.

His eyes were full of tears that only fell when he blinked, creating thick lines down his face that dripped off his chin. "I hate that I hurt her. That I'm capable of that. I'm supposed to be a protector, not a wild animal!"

"You are a protector, Sam. But you _do_ have an animal that's a part of you. You let him have control but look at where you are now? There aren't many with your control. There also aren't many that would have stayed by her side; they would have run away. The first few months are unpredictable; your whole life is if you don't learn to control it. Unless you have the determination to not let it control you. I know more about this than you do, as it seems, and I have less control than you do. It takes time. And courage and determination, which you've proved you have. You should be proud, Sam, proud of where you are and who you are. It wasn't your fault. Even if it was, Emily is fine. It does no good to wallow in guilt over things you can't control and you're holding yourself back. You're holding part of yourself from her, you idiot; doesn't she deserve all of you?"

He worked through my words and eventually surprised me by yanking me up and into his arms. "I've never thought of it like that. I've never had someone be so blunt with me, about this subject anyway. Thank you for opening my eyes!" He laughed and twirled me once before setting me down again. I smiled and wrapped my arms around him.

"Just consider yourself in my debt." I winked up at him and from his expression I wondered if anyone joked with him as freely as I felt I could. He pushed me away by the shoulders and I inwardly cringed at the change in him.

"What happened to you? I remember Charlie going crazy after your mom died. You were supposed to go to Charlie but you disappeared with just a note from your uncle. He was furious but couldn't press the matter, as there was no official plan set."

"My uncle took me to Texas, obviously," No one knew what really happened that night. I didn't want to tell anyone either. All I would receive is pity. I would be treated like a china doll and end up shunning everyone because of it. Where would that leave me?

"Well?" He demanded when I didn't elaborate.

I sighed in irritation, "We lived there until I was 16. I ran away one night and found a shifter... community, I guess you would call it. He found me about a year later. He's a great tracker. But he also taught me so I know how to cover my trail easily, which is why it took him so long to find me. He took me out of there and moved me straight to Oregon. We've been there for about three years." I shrugged and Sam crossed his arms.

"He beat you," Sam said, his eyes traveling over me even though I was covered. "Hard enough that the marks stayed. Has this been happening your whole life or recently?"

"Since I moved with him," I said. I didn't see why it mattered, I wasn't with him anymore. "When I disobeyed he claimed it was the white devil in me and he vowed to beat it out of me." Sam tensed again and his expression was murderous. I could see that he wanted to phase but his control was iron tight and I was impressed.

"And the whip marks?"

"He punished me in every way he could think of," I said. Images came to the surface and I pushed them back. There wasn't time to get pissed this morning. I grabbed his arm, "It's fine, Sam. I'm away from him and have help this time. I only have scars on my back and the only new one I'll have is this gash on my side."

"You are not fine, Sparrow! Why aren't you pissed? Or crying? Something!" Sam shook me, his eyes bored into mine, probably looking for the anger or sadness he wanted me to show.

"I didn't say I wasn't pissed," I snapped. "I am pissed. But I'm not going to cry over something that I'm used to," Sam growled and squeezed my arms tightly, "Stop it! Don't you dare tell me how I'm supposed to act." I yanked away from him and glared, "I have plenty of problems because of my life. I have a horrible temper, I hate people and always think the worst. I have no patience for sensitive idiots who think everyone needs to censure themselves because their weak minds can't handle life." I could feel the animal coming to the surface. I knew that my eyes were now completely animal. They were almost always in animal form. My temper was close to the surface most of the day. I could tell by the wary look of Sam's face. I was vibrating and barely under control. "I do too many drugs and drink too much. I've fucked too many people and possibly have two friends. I don't give a fuck about anyone or anything and I'm not going to have you start telling me what to feel or how to act about my life. I've fought and killed to be standing here today and I have the right to act how I damn well please!"

I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. I managed to get under control and saw him shake his head. He pulled me into his arms again; I was shaking, still. Not because I was shifting but because I was exasperated with myself. I had never told someone so much about myself in one go. I didn't like that Sam could provoke me into saying things like that but I knew I could trust him. I almost laughed at that. I had only known this man for an hour and already I trusted him. "We're not going to let anything happen to you, Sparrow. Not Cochise, not anything. I assume he's a shifter and that's why you couldn't get away from him?"

I exhaled again and relaxed against him. It was nice to be embraced by a shifter who wasn't trying to rip your clothes off or beat you. "Yes. He has the same animal as me, though I'm sure that's obvious, him being my uncle and everything."

He looked down at me and smiled. He really was much better with a smile on his face and I felt proud to know I brought it out. I exhaled, "Don't tell anyone what I told you. You can say he beat me but that's the end of it. I'd rather not be treated like a china doll."

For some reason he found this funny and after he saw my expression he quickly explained, "That's how Bella's...boyfriend treats her. Like she's a china doll. But I won't tell anyone. Promise." I knew about the link between pack minds and the possibility that he would slip. I trusted him anyway and knew that if they did find out he would have tried his hardest. I smiled and was happy to have a real friend after so long.

He let go of me and sat down. He looked up at me expectantly and the Alpha was now demanding an explanation. "Okay," I sat and crossed my legs in the chair. "My mother told me about a vampire that would approach me. That when it happened I needed to find William Black immediately and speak to him and the Alpha. A vampire approached me about two weeks ago. He said the Volturi were losing patience with me and that I needed to give them what they wanted."

"The Volturi?" Sam asked.

"They are vampire royalty. The three brothers rule over the vampire world with their guard. A guard that is said to be impenetrable because of their gifts. They have simple rules that break down to one rule, really. Don't let humans know what they are. This includes not drawing attention to themselves in any way. No killing whole towns or feeding in one place too long. No staying in one place too long. No sunlight. And no telling humans they are who they are. If the Volturi find out they are doing any of this the vampire in question will be killed and any humans who know will also be killed." I had more information about the Volturi than I'm sure they were aware of, but that's what happened when you learned at a young age that they were going to target you.

"What do they want from you? Did your mother tell you?" Sam asked. He was tense again.

"No," I said. "She never told me and I asked the man who...warned me. He was a vampire so it was hard to trust that he was telling the truth. But he was. They want me to _breed_ for them. To give them a generation of shifters for their use and protection.

Sam inhaled sharply, "Why? Why you?"

I gritted my teeth, "They came across a woman shifter from my line years ago and became obsessed with the idea. Before they could use her for their...experiment she threw herself in the fire that was being used to burn other vampires. They traced her back to my tribe and told her father that the next female shifter was to be theirs. There has only been one female before me who had the ability to shift and they killed her." I shivered at the thought that I could have been killed, too. "That's probably why my father sent us away while my mother was pregnant with me. Cochise knows of this and that's why he's trained me the way he has my whole life. But if he would have left me in Idaho with my mother they never would have found out I was alive." My voice was bitter now, for the life Cochise had pushed on me. He thought he was helping but he might as well have killed me himself. I still didn't understand why he would bring me to Texas when he knew that's where they would look.

"They..." Sam was speechless. He was disgusted and when he looked at me again I couldn't believe the determination I saw there. "I can't believe this! What else did that leech say? They aren't getting anywhere near you." I couldn't believe it. He wasn't pissed that I involved them, making them susceptible to their perversions, too. Of course, they didn't have a female so they were safe. "Why do they want a female? Why not a male? Why not just take them from birth from other shifters?"

"My children are guaranteed to have the ability. It's something about the birth, about me being their mother and our blood mingling so thoroughly. It's like if a mother has AIDS and gives birth, except a C-section won't give my children an out. I wouldn't want to anyway, being a shifter is something to be proud of, not hide from. But keeping the mother there with the children will also give them less to worry about as far as an uprising. The mother will be able to control the children easily and it's also good incentive to behave and not commit suicide." He nodded. "Thank the Spirits for the vampire, he told me this. He knew all about it. He said that they were coming for me. I asked him when and he said I didn't need to worry about urgency, that time to vampire is different than it is to us. Their plans are set for at least a year away." I stared into the trees, trying to come up with a way that this would be possible. I didn't know how many were in Sam's pack and hated the thought that they might die because of me.

"Why did this vampire warn you?" Sam asked.

"To settle a debt to my mother. I don't know what the debt was but it must have been big because he was risking his life by telling me. They have ways of knowing what each of their own does but thankfully he wasn't part of the guard. Just a lower servant. They won't check his memories like they do the guard," I said. I looked at him and felt so guilty. He was just finding his happiness, how could I do this? "I'm so sorry, Sam. I hate that I brought this to you. I can go somewhere else if you want, I would understand if you didn't want to involve your pack in this. It's dangerous and I doubt we'd all be alive at the end."

Sam's head jerked to mine, "Hey, hey. There's no way I'm abandoning you. You've got help here, Sparrow. Charlie will also be ecstatic that you're here. He's not going to let you out of his sight for a while."

I smiled weakly and leaned my forehead against his. Thank you." I felt like a weight had been lifted from my chest but it tightened again when I thought of the fighting. "We are going to have to train hard. I can help you, I have more knowledge about fighting than you think."

"I don't doubt it, but don't worry. We know what we're doing. We'll be fine, you should relax and take a break from fighting for a while."

"I've been fighting and killing since I was 11," I stood and crossed my arms. "Stop being such a man, Samuel. I'm fine." I held my hand out for him and he rolled his eyes and took it, unfazed by my attitude. "Now, let's go make breakfast for your beautiful girl."

I could almost _feel_ him smiling as I pulled him into the house and through to the kitchen. "You can cook, right?" I turned to him. "I don't want Emily to associate me with her house burning down."

"Yes, I can," He put his hand over his heart. "I'm wounded, woman. How do you think I survive when Emily visits her relatives?"

"I don't know, mooch off friends and order pizza?" I said, my eyebrows raised, knowing that was the truth. I was proven right when his eyes lowered to the floor and he muttered, "_Damn_."

I laughed and we made breakfast while I listened to his childhood, instigated by my questions. Whenever he tried asking questions about mine I would deflect him with another question. He knew what I was doing but didn't try to push. He knew the majority of my childhood-violence. He did ask simple questions, like my favorites, and pouted when I told him my favorite animal: a black panther.

"What's wrong with wolves?" He asked, expertly flipping a pancake in the air. I grunted, impressed.

"Nothing," I sighed, turning toward him. "Panthers are...majestic. Sleek, powerful, quiet. Steady and calm; unpredictable and violent. Their subtle strength and intelligence. It's...they're seductive."

"You're a panther," He smiled.

"You're a wolf." I smiled back.

We laughed and turned back to breakfast. Sam disappeared into the living room soon after and I set the table, listening as he woke Emily.

"Em? Wake up, Em."

"Hmm," She hummed. I heard the rustle of fabric as she stretched and kissed him. "Oh! Sam, she's-

"In the kitchen," Sam finished. They were standing now. "I've already talked to her. We have breakfast made, come eat."

"What time is it? Why would you have her make breakfast? Sam, she's injured!" Emily's footsteps were getting closer.

"It's six thirty," Sam said. "And she's fine."

She appeared in the doorway, her face turning up in a smile when she saw me at the table, waiting for them.

"It was my idea to make breakfast," I said, pointing to the seats and waiting for them to sit down. "Sam made most of it and I feel fine, really, thank you."

"You're more than welcome. I'm sorry the clothes don't fit well. I'm pretty short." She leaned forward on her elbows. "You didn't need to help with breakfast, dear. But thank you all the same."

"That's okay, I'm just happy they're clean. And I really do feel fine, I'll be right as rain in a couple days." Her face was confused and her head was tilted to the side.

"Sparrow's a shifter." Sam said.

"Oh," Emily mouthed. "You? But...you're a...woman!" She clapped her hand over her mouth, embarrassed, and I chuckled.

"Yeah, it's not as common as the ability in boys, but it's common enough." She smacked Sam's hand away from his plate. "No, no. Let's eat. I'm starving and it's getting cold. Sam claims he's a good cook so I guess it's the moment of truth." I took a bite of my pancake and pretended disgust. "Ugh! Sam, damn it," Emily was shocked, her mouth wide open. I smiled. "I owe you an apology for doubting you. This is delicious." Sam laughed and started eating, "Told you."

Emily laughed and looked between us curiously, already noticing a difference in Sam, but started eating anyway. She asked questions throughout breakfast and Sam answered them because I didn't know how much he would want to tell her. He told her my name, which she recognized and eyed me suspiciously before he explained that they weren't going to burn any villages over me. Where I had lived and how I ran away. He told her about Cochise and how he punished me. He told her vampires were after me and why. He kept it simple. I smiled at him in thanks and he nodded to me. Emily said we were going to be great friends and I smiled at her, too, thankful for the couple that took me in.

After breakfast, Emily shooed us out of the cabin and said she would do the dishes. Sam kissed her goodbye and I said thanks again. We were on our way to William and I was surprisingly not nervous. Maybe because I wasn't often nervous or maybe because I had already enlisted the help of the Pack. It may even be because I had a _friend_ next to me. I smiled up at Sam and bumped his hip with mine, well, I bumped into his hip with my body. He was way too tall for my hip to reach his.

"Billy has a son who phased recently. He's especially pissed about phasing. I have to talk to him about Bella and the Alpha position. He's going to be Alpha when he stops letting his emotions rule him. He knows he's the rightful heir to the position but he's rebelling against the whole thing. The Pack, his animal, and his own thoughts. His own needs," Sam said.

"How old is he? You have vampires nearby?" I asked. I didn't know why Sam was telling me this but I figured it was just something he trusted me with. Something he needed to talk out.

"He's 17. We have a group of them in Forks. They call themselves a family. They don't drink from humans, only animals, and we have a treaty with them." I could tell he was disgusted by this and I couldn't blame him. What the hell? A treaty with vampires? It's like tying up a tiger with yarn. Pointless.

"Humans, animals, does it matter? Either way it's wrong. They're wrong, abominations. They all need to be destroyed. I've only come across one decent vampire. What does that say for them, that I like one out of millions? There are some that are not...well some that have my respect, but I still don't like them. They even know they shouldn't be...alive. Vampires should be burned on sight and that you have a treaty is ridiculous.I thought back to the vampire that helped me when I most needed it. I was seconds from death and he stopped it. Crazy bitch liked watching pain, especially mine, especially a shifters pain. She was out of her mind; the things she had ordered to be done to me. She was furious when he stopped them and pushed me back in my cell. I can still hear her shrieks when I escaped three days later.

"I agree," Sam said. "But he's the only one who can nullify it, well, there are two people actually. Billy and Jake are the two who could have it removed but Billy won't because he likes peace and Jake won't because of Bella."

"Why?" What did Bella have to do with vampires and shifters?

"She's dating one and he won't do anything to hurt her." Sam's lips were pressed into a thin line.

"A fucking vampire? What the hell is wrong with her? How can she stand to let him touch her?" I could see them, see _him_ running his hands over her as she shivered. See the blood and ruby eyes. "I'm going to have a talk with the idiot girl."

"Good luck," he said. "She won't listen to anyone. He left her, too. Right in the middle of the damn woods. You should have seen her. She wasn't even living, not really. She would go to school, do her homework, and cook dinner. She was unreachable until her and Jake became friends. He brought part of her back and then she tried to kill herself by jumping off a cliff." He pointed to the cliffs on our left. "The future seeing leech, Alice, thought Bella died. She can't see anyone's future when we're around, shifters. Anyway, Edward found out and went to Italy to kill himself. Bella left with Alice to get him and now they're together again like nothing happened."

I was stunned that someone would do that. Especially for a vampire. A vampire who left her in the middle of the woods. Vampires were selfish, so I wasn't surprised about his actions, but why would she deal with that? Where was her common sense? She was going to have a hell of a time having that leech at Charlie's. I was going to rub myself all over everything I could find in that house. A slow smile crept across my face as I thought about all the hell I could give the bastard. This was going to be more fun than I thought.

"What's with the scary smile?" Sam was smiling, a full, toothy smile.

"I'm going to make his life hell. He'll never want to step foot in that house again," I looked up at him. "She's not going to like me but Charlie will love me, if he's not smitten with the fucker. Charlie won't let her go to his house all the time will he?"

Sam laughed and laughed. He bent double and I had to stop walking as I waited for him to stop. "No, Charlie hates Edward. He is going to love you. This is going to be great."

We started walking again and I asked, "How is Bella without him?"

"Bella is a great girl, really nice and selfless. But she's too dependent on him and too...I would say timid but she's not. She can get pissed, slapped Paul right in the face, surprised the hell outta me. But it's him. He's no good for her and he's her..._world." _The last word was drawn out sarcastically. I laughed. "Jake won't quit even when he didn't imprint on her. He says he has this connection with her...like something is trying to pull him to her but he can't hold onto it."

"Imprinting," I smiled. "I've heard of that. Seen it, too. It's interesting to me. The different ways our species mate are fascinating," I looked up at Sam. "Vampires are different than us but the same. They can choose their mate, and we can, too but imprinting gets in the way sometimes. They inject a small amount of venom through a bite if their chosen is a human. It won't hurt or change them but it keeps them from being able to be with or feel anything for someone else romantically. Two vampire mates are more aggressive in their mating. They inject so much more venom over a period of a few days in different places on their bodies. This is because of their never changing state and 'healing abilities' but it's still permanent. The only way to get out of that relationship would be for one of them to die. It's not permanent with humans; just suck out the venom and they're released."

"The leech could have her marked?" Sam almost screamed in my face. "Does she know about this?"

I shrugged, "She could. I mean he does have to bite her so she would feel it, unless she's the deepest sleeper ever. It's reversible so don't worry."

"She probably asked for it, the stupid girl," Sam said, turning into a driveway. "I'm still telling Jake."

I laughed because he sounded childish as he muttered the last part. "You do that, Samuel." He scowled at me and pushed me off the ramp with one hand as he knocked on the faded, white door.


	3. Chapter 2: The Woods

**_[A/N]: Ages, so everyone knows. (It's June 3rd right now in story time)-Sparrow is 19, turning 20 in 2 months, Bella is 18, turning 19 in 3 months, and Jacob is 18, just turned 18 about 3 weeks ago. Other characters—Paul: 20, 21 in November. Sam: 23. Jared: 21. Embry and Quil: 18. Seth: 16. And anyone's age besides that isn't really important I guess. Bella just finished her junior year in high school because past the end of New Moon, which is when the story starts, everything is going according to my plan and not Meyer's. Just pretend her mom was late in putting her in school when she was younger or something. Wow this is a long note. Okay, hope you like the chapter!_**

**Chapter 2:**

I was surprised that the future Alpha wasn't bigger than the current Alpha, Sam. But I also knew from experience that if the true Alpha wasn't in the right mind-set to accept the position, he wouldn't reach his full potential and would become increasingly violent. Unless he was the happiest fucker on Earth. Which from Sam's opinion, he was not. Sam huffed and pushed Jacob aside. I followed him to a small kitchen table and sat across from him trying not to laugh when Jacob muttered about beautiful girls. He stared at me curiously before looking at Sam, "This is the girl that stumbled onto your lawn last night?" He looked at me again, "She doesn't look half as bad as she did last night."

"That's because she's not, idiot." Jacob glared at Sam. "This is Sparrow Ryder."

"Ryder? From Texas?" He focused on me. "What are you doing here?"

I sighed and looked at Sam. He nodded so I told Jacob about my family, Cochise, my past (excluding the drugs and other things I was still involved in), that I was a shifter, and why I was here.

"And Sam already agreed to help?" Jake asked. His emotions were so clear on his face. I could see the sympathy he had for me. The anger and disgust for what the Volturi wanted to do.

"Yes," I said. "Stop looking at me like that. I'm just fine."

"Good." Jacob tilted his head and turned to Sam. "When are you and Quil patrolling?"

"Wait!" I leaned forward. "Where's your dad? I need to talk to him."

"He went fishing with Harry about an hour ago. Don't worry, he'll be thrilled to have you back and help you." Jacob said. He turned back to Sam, who was leaning back in his chair, his neck craning toward the clock.

"I told him to meet me here in," The chair fell to the floor and Sam stood, "about two minutes. Can you keep Sparrow company? If that's okay with you, hon." I smiled and stood up to hug him, nodding. Sam laughed and flicked my nose when he stepped away; a silent "be good." I turned back to find Jacob staring at us with his mouth open. I rolled my eyes and sat back down.

"You're going to drool all over the table." I put my elbows on the table and propped my chin on my hands. "Do you have plans for the day?"

His mouth snapped shut and he shook his head. "Nope," He smiled then and I found myself smiling back, not able to help myself. He had the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. The kind of smile that makes you happy whether you want to be or not. "We can walk around if you want?"

"Sure," I stood up and jerked my head toward the door, "let's go through the forest somewhere."

He looked surprised by my request but stood and followed me out the door anyway. I knew I was making him feel awkward by staring at him as we walked but I didn't really care. This was the boy that expected to win Isabella by being too afraid to hurt her feelings? He was going to land face first in a puddle with squished roses and a broken heart. He seemed like a genuine guy but he lacked the aggressiveness that I needed in my men. That any woman needs.

"So you're a shifter?" Jacob looked apprehensive. Great, he's going to try to tiptoe around offending me, too.

"Yes," I smiled at him, trying to alleviate some of the nervousness he had around me. "No need to be nervous, I'm not going to bite you or anything."

He scoffed and flexed his arms above his head, "Like you could get close enough."

"I'm sure I could, Jacob." I winked at him and his eyes blinked rapidly. He recovered faster than I thought he would and turned his smile on me again, "Well, in that case I might just enjoy it." He winked back. I laughed and pushed him away. Unless he was just a natural flirt, which was probably the case with his level of attractiveness, he wasn't as hooked on Bella as Sam thought he was. "What animal are you?"

"Panther," I said. "You're a wolf."

He puffed his chest out, "Big bad wolf, to at your service."

"Stand down puppy, you can't hurt a fly," I teased.

He stopped walking and stepped in front of me, looking down at me with a mischievous glint in his eyes. The muscles in his arms were strained. The heat from his naked chest was teasing me with its proximity. He _could _be aggressive. I could definitely use that to my advantage. "What gave you that impression?"

"You're just so...tame," I broke our gaze and circled him like the animal I was. "Your scent is barely mingled with the wild, the scent that marks you as a shifter." I lied. His scent was mingled normally for someone like him; someone split between the man and the animal. When he accepted the animal his scent would be stronger, more mixed. I touched the top of his shoulder and let it slide down his back and around to his side before I stopped in front of him.

"Really now?" He questioned. I smiled, knowing that he would take my teasing as a challenge. "Race me. Let's see who the tame one is after that."

I rose up on my toes and poked his chest. I could feel the testosterone dripping off him. "How is a race going to prove you're not a tame..." I poked him. "little..." I poked him again. "puppy...?" We were almost chest to chest and he smiled down at me. Not his I'm going to make you happy no matter what smile; it was a smile that I saw a lot though. It was a smile that reeked of masculinity. Power. It changed Jacob—it made him look like a man. Like the Alpha he was going to become. I smiled up at him with my own smile.

"Well I'm not going to fight you so this is the next best thing. I'm also pretty sure I can run faster than you," he took a step back. "Unless you're scared?"

I rolled my eyes. "Ha!" I breached the gap between us again, trying to invade his personal space and fluster him. It was working but not as much as I wanted it to. "I'm not running as a panther. I don't feel like getting naked in front of you." I ran my fingers down his chest and watched his cheeks briefly tinge pink. "Of course, I could change my mind."

"Human," he swallowed audibly and took another step back. "On the count of three? Stop in three miles, there will be a huge boulder if you continue north."

I laughed and at three we darted forward. Despite the need to win, this was one of my favorite things to do: run through the woods. I loved being surrounded by nature; no cars, crowds, buildings, or odors that accompanied people. It was relaxing and natural. I could live in the forest and be completely happy. Sure, I liked clubs and crowds but when it came down to it I preferred being able to go somewhere secluded at the end of the day. I liked my connection with nature. Even though I was smaller, Jacob's muscle was pushing him forward faster. I heard him laugh when I growled and thrust myself forward, now able to touch him with my hand if I reached out. The boulder was in sight and even though I knew he was going to moan about how unfair I was, I grabbed the back of his arm and yanked. I did not expect to him to pull me back and we tumbled to the ground, rolling several feet from where we fell in a pile of limbs. Leaves and dirt were flying everywhere as the roll turned into a wrestling match, each of us trying to come out on top. I pushed him down to the ground with as much force as I could and his breath came out in a huff. "Do you give in?"

"No," He tried to sit up and I pressed my arm harder onto his neck. "You're a cheater! I so would've won."

"I'm not a cheater, I just don't play by the rules." I said, moving to hold his wrists above his head and straddle his waist. "Now, do you give?" A short scream escaped me as he flipped me over and grabbed my wrists, pushing me into the ground with his body weight. Jacob was fucking heavy. I tilted my head to the left to blow the hair out of my face.

"You have a tattoo?"

"I have four tattoos," I said, escape maneuvers running through my mind. "The little bird on my neck you see now, words on my right arm by the crease of my elbow, a sparrow on my right shoulder, and one on my left wrist."

He pulled the sweater down on my wrist, "Accio adventure?" He laughed. "Like from Harry Potter?"

"And what the hell is wrong with Harry Potter?" If he didn't like Harry Potter we couldn't be friends. I was serious.

"Nothing," he said, smiling at me. "I love Harry Potter. Just didn't think you got out much."

I laughed with him and squirmed underneath him, trying to find a weakness. Despite being distracted there was none. "Gonna let me up now?"

"Hmm..." He squinted one eye and looked up as if he was contemplating it. "Nope!"

I squirmed again and heard the tiniest hitch in his breath. I flashed him my seductive smile, or whatever Rayner called it. Jacob narrowed his eyes at me and I deliberately wiggled underneath him again. "That's not going to work." His voice was low but still firm.

"What?" I burst out laughing when he rolled his eyes. "Are you sure about that?" I wiggled again. He growled and pushed harder against me.

"Positive," he said. "Now admit I'm the winner."

"Uh...no." Our faces were an inch apart and I knew the one subject that would get him distracted enough, even if it was a bitch move. "So how are you and Isabella?"

The question threw him completely off guard and his grip loosened but the second I tried to flip him over he tightened his hold on me. "Who told you about her?"

"Samuel, obviously," I said, watching his face, not thinking about trying to win at the moment. "He told me she won't leave her bloodsucker."

"That's none of your business." Jacob was still an inch away from my face and his hands were so tight around mine that my wrists would be broken if I weren't a shifter. I could feel the tension rolling along his muscles. His animal was close to the surface. And I kept pushing.

"So?" I said, smiling up at him. "You're not gonna win her that way, Jacob. By being the nice guy. I know he controls her and you're too afraid to hurt her feelings."

"I hurt her all the time! You have no idea what you're talking about." He was glaring at me and I almost laughed. He was in such denial. What was wrong with him?

"Stop getting pissed off at everyone because you can't get your girl. You need to get pissed at her. She deserves it for being a stupid, little girl." I sneered at him. His grip was still iron-clad.

"Shut up!" He pushed into me further still. My back was aching now but I was exhilarated. I knew I was playing a dangerous game but that made it all the more appealing to me. "You don't know anything about her."

"I don't need to, to know she's using you! She's using you for what she can't get with him. She's using you because you're fun and he's not. You give her what she wants and you don't pressure her. She fucking needs pressure! She knows she's got you wrapped around her tiny finger. You're on a leash and she's not even yours." I laughed at him, watching his eyes turn black. He was close to his breaking point and knowing I could get away before he phased had me unworried.

"She's not." he gritted out. "She's not-"

"Yes, she is!" I snapped, annoyed that he was being such an idiot. "She's got you in the palm of her hand. Have you even kissed another girl, Jacob?"

"No," he said.

"She has. She's been kissing him, Jacob." I said, "I'll bet she's never even thought about you."

"You're such a bitch!"

I tried to shrug but he was still holding me too tightly. "I'm right."

He stared at me, his eyes still dark and his breath going through his nose deeply. His lips were on mine a second too late for me to catch and I was surprised. The kiss was angry. Passionate. It wasn't earth shattering or special but it was hot. It was...Jacob. I'd only known him for a few hours and I knew that this kiss was Jacob. That's the only explanation for it. Our tongues were battling for dominance and he ground himself into me. He released my wrists and I pulled on his hair. One of his hands clutched my hip; my leg was wrapped around him. The other clasped the back of my neck and my nails scrapped down his back. He ground into me again and pulled away from my mouth. He kissed down my neck and nibbled my earlobe, making me arch into him and moan.

"Fuck," he groaned. I flipped us over and smiled down at him. "Fuck!" The change in his tone was satisfying.

"I think I win, hon." I kissed his nose and stood, starting to walk in the direction of his house. He caught up to me and pushed me against a tree. He grabbed my neck with one hand and pulled my face to his, kissing me deeply.

"I think we both win," he whispered against my lips. I smiled as his head lowered and rolled my eyes. Men. Too much pride. But who was I to judge? I had deliberately hindered him more than once in my attempt to win. "Mmm," He grabbed my ass with his other hand and hauled me up against him before pushing me against the tree. My arms wrapped around his neck while my legs went around his waist and I gave in to kissing him. He was Isabella's, I reminded myself. Even if she didn't admit she wanted him. Who could not want him? He was also a damn good kisser and I didn't pass that up, no matter what. Well, if they were officially together I would have. I drew the line at home wrecker.

Jacob's hand slipped down the side of my neck and ribs. His fingers danced at the bottom of my shirt before pushing upward. I groaned at the heat and skin to skin contact. He hesitated at the bottom of my breast and I moaned, "Touch me." His lack of confidence disappeared and he grabbed me, his thumb grazed over my nipple and circled it. I gasped into his mouth and he groaned, pushing himself against me harder.

"Jacob?"

Jacob was three feet away in less than a second. I leaned on the tree and crossed my arms. I was annoyed that I hadn't heard them coming. Sam's eyes flickered between us a few times before they settled on Jacob. The smile on the guy behind him, Quil, I assumed, was huge. He had abs to rival Jacob's and was insanely attractive. I could tell that he knew it, too, because he exuded confidence.

"I told you to keep her company, not maul her!" Sam said. His arms rose and fell in frustration and I had to stop myself from laughing. As Alpha, he looked ridiculous. "Seriously, what were you thinking? She was covered in blood just last night."

I rolled my eyes, "Samuel, stop." His attention focused on me. "We were racing and it turned into a wrestling match when I tried to grab him. Wrestling just happens to turn me on. I'm not hurt and I heal fast, remember? I can handle one puppy."

I looked at Jacob and smirked at his dumfounded expression. He raised his eyebrows and I stuck my tongue out at him. Quil laughed and I looked at him. "You're Quil, right?"

He nodded and walked up to me, pulling me in a hug and spinning me around. "You're Sparrow." Then leaned closer and whispered, "If you want a real wrestling buddy next time, give me a call."

"That I am and not even in your wildest dreams, cowboy." I laughed and looked at Sam. He was still glaring at Jacob. "Stop that! I'm the one that egged him on."

They both looked at me and Sam crossed his arms. "He shouldn't be taking advantage-" I laughed. I doubled over and laughed. Him take advantage of me? That was hilarious!

"That is not possible," I said, still laughing. "For him to take advantage of me? No one can take advantage of me."

"Then don't take advantage of him." Sam said, his arms still crossed. I rolled my eyes and walked up to him. I hadn't even known the man for a whole day and he was already my big brother.

"I'm not going to take advantage of him. We even talked about Isabella," I looked at Jacob and he stiffened. "Didn't we?" He nodded curtly. "Still think I'm a bitch?"

"He called you a bitch?" Sam asked.

"Yes," I said, still looking at Jacob with an impassive expression. "So?"

"Yes." He answered. I smiled at him and he looked at me like I was crazy.

"It's nice that you aren't trying to spare my feelings like you do Isabella's," He winced. "I'd punch the shit out of you."

Quil started laughing his head off and Jacob turned to him and glared. "Dude, I like her!"

I walked back over to Quil. "I think I'll stay by him, he's nice to me." Quil threw his arm around me, "Guess you lost another girl, Jake."

Jacob growled at him and I said, "Oh, hush puppy! If you'd stop being such a pansy, I'd tell you the information I have and help you get her." Jacob stopped growling and looked at me in confusion. Quil and Sam turned to me and both asked, "What?"

"I'm not telling until Jacob pulls his head out of his ass." I said. "Now, you two are still on patrol I'm guessing and I'm hungry. Come on, Jacob. Let's go make some food." I turned to Sam. "When are you off patrol?"

Sam shook his head and smiled, "You sure are something, Sparrow." Quil was now standing beside Sam and I walked back to Jacob. "We're off at two and then Jacob and Embry are going to patrol. When I get back I'm going to call Charlie and let him know you're here. That is where you'd like to live, right?"

I tried for an innocent smile, "Of course. I have to meet this Isabella." Sam and Quil looked at me with apprehensive and mischievous smiles, respectively. Jacob looked pissed again.

"What are you doing to do to her?"

I saluted to Sam and Quil; they ran off. I turned to Jacob and linked my arm through his. "Nothing, silly," we started walking back to his house. "I'm going to mess with her perfect relationship though."

"You're going to mess with Edward?"

"Just a little," I looked up at him and he was smiling down at me. His huge, happy smile. "You're going to help me."

"How? I thought I had to pull my head out of my ass first?"

"Yes, of course. You're going to show me you can do that and then you are going to help me. I can start our project on my own," I said.

"Okay," I lost Jacob to his thoughts. I thought about all the things I could do to mess with her vampire. Rubbing myself against everything in the house was a sure fire way to piss him off. When he was over I could always need Bella's attention. But seeing as how she would probably hate me I wouldn't be able to do that. I could force him to eat, make sure Charles was there so he had to. There was more I could do with Bella. Argue with her about the stench, call him derogatory names, talk about the Pack, or how she'd be leaving her father. Looks like I was just going to have to play the bitch card at maximum level. Jake exhaled heavily, bringing me out of my thoughts, "You're completely right. I'm making an ass out of myself."

"Finally!" I smacked the back of his head. "All it took was brutal honesty. See how that works?"

"She just gets so pissed at me. How am I supposed to convince her she's supposed to be with me if I'm pissing her off and she doesn't talk to me for days or weeks?"

"Simple," I said. We were at his house now and walked inside. We went straight to the kitchen and I sat down while he took the stuff out to make sandwiches. "I'll be there to remind her now. Even if I wasn't, she'd be thinking about you and cave anyway." I was guessing but I was sure that would be how it went. That's how it always went. Girls were usually like that. Guys were too, they just did it differently and waited forever. "Can you make good sandwiches?"

Jacob scoffed, "Of course I can make good sandwiches."

Five minutes later we each had three sandwiches and a glass of milk in front of us. I sighed heavily and got a knife from the drawer I saw him use. I sat down and cut a line through the middle of my sandwiches and he laughed.

"Hey! Cutting them in half is perfectly acceptable. So shut up, puppy." I defended my sandwiches. Call me a child but I liked my sandwiches how I liked them.

He stared down at his sandwiches and silently took the knife and cut his too. I picked my sandwich up and starting eating, a self-satisfied smile on my face. This round was all mine.

When we were done he put the dishes in the sink and pulled me over to the couch and turned on the T.V. He flipped through the channels and stopped on the Animal Planet. I gave him a look and he shrugged, "What? You like your sandwiches cut and I like the Animal Planet."

I turned to the T.V. with a laugh, "Oh! I like this show."

"You like River Monsters?" Jacob was looking at me with his head cocked to the side and his eyebrow pulled up.

"Uh," I shook my head at him. "Yes! Why wouldn't I?"

"I'm just not used to the outdoors type," he said. I knew he was thinking about Bella again so I rapped his shoulder.

"Don't think about her right now," I commanded. "Tell me about your life. Do you have siblings? Is your mother gone? What are-"

"Okay, okay!" Jacob laughed. "I get it." He was genuinely happy that someone was interested in him like I was. I could tell that he wasn't used to it and his confidence took a boost. I sighed mentally. Just what he needed, a confidence boost. But I was also determined to know everything about him. Sam and the others as well. I loved knowing everyone's secrets and what made them themselves. People fascinated me when they weren't being sensitive idiots. I didn't bother getting to know those people. Jacob sighed heavily like he was going to do something he hated and I rolled my eyes as he laughed at me. "I have two sisters, they're twins, Rachel and Rebecca. Rachel is in her last year of college and Rebecca lives with her husband in Hawaii. They own a small retreat but it's building pretty quickly. She said that Dad and I could visit when it was more stable," Just like that he took off, telling me his entire life story. We sat there, him talking and me listening, for hours. The boy sure could talk. He told me about his mother's death, helping his dad, his friends Embry and Quil and how they helped him after the death and his father's handicap, school, and finally he came up to recent events. He was hesitating and I scolded him, "Just spit it out. Tell me about the Pack and Isabella."

"Do you promise not to be bitchy?" He was eying me apprehensively.

"No," I shrugged. "But I will listen and be more sympathetic than I usually would, just for you."

He smiled and I leaned against the arm rest, putting my feet in his lap, as he started with the vampire family. "It's because of them. That we phase in the first place. The Cullen's, our resident vampires. They lived here for a year before Bella came and that's when Sam phased, then Paul and Jared, after a few months. The kids enrolled in the school, there are five of them, and the leader works at the hospital. The fucking hospital! How sick is that? I heard he's a good guy but he's a vampire, it doesn't matter what he's like. His mate, the mom stays at home, I guess. Then Bella comes in and he just sweeps her up! She knew right away what they were and she still dated him," He was breathing sporadically and I grabbed his hand, running my fingers up and down his arm. He calmed down after a couple minutes and continued, "Toward the end of the last school year she disappeared for two days and Charlie called my dad all frantic saying she was in the ICU in Phoenix. I didn't know what was going on, or that they were vampires when this happened, but I remember how anxious my dad was until Charlie called again, saying she had fallen down several flights of stairs and through a window. Dad made a few comments about the Cullen boy, Edward, and hung up shortly after, irritated. After school starts again they leave right after her birthday and she's...she was...she was horrible. She wouldn't eat or sleep or do anything! I'm sure Sam told you about it, you said he told you something." I nodded. Isabella was so fucking stupid. I refrained from saying anything, knowing he would just get upset again. I wanted to know more about this vampire's hold over her. "She was catatonic. Anyway, after a few months she came to me and we got real close. We're best friends and I had her thinking about more, about moving on. I know she loves me. I know I'm the one she's supposed to be with. But the second that leech walks back into her life she drops everything and runs into his arms. She had to go to fucking Italy to stop him from killing himself, or whatever that means. And she just forgave him! Just like that. What the hell is she thinking?"

His chest was rising and falling rapidly and I continued running my fingers up and down his arm. I knew most of this from Sam but seeing how it affected Jacob made it worse. Couldn't she see how much she was hurting him? Even if she didn't love him like that, why would she put everyone who loves her through her death? A fake death, just to be with a bloodsucker.

"And he's so controlling! Him and his sister," he sneered the word. "They're both overbearing parents when it comes to her. They dress her and force things on her. He never tells her when something is going on and keeps her in the dark. They treat her like a child, I don't know how she deals with it. How she can want to be around them. Around him! I just don't understand what is so appealing about a lifeless, cold corpse."

"She's being stupid," I said, leaning forward. "But we'll stop her. I don't want to have someone related to me that becomes a vampire. Family or not, I will kill her." Jacob's head snapped to mine and he stared at me in disbelief.

"You'd kill your own cousin?"

"Yes." I said, my eyes not wavering from his. He cringed at my stare but didn't look away. He was looking at me like I was crazy. "I am extremely loyal to my family, Jacob. Even my uncle, Cochise. I don't love him, I don't want anything to do with him, and even though he did and let horrible things happen to me, he believed he was doing the right thing. He thought he was helping me in the long run. I don't agree with him and I hate the way he sees those around him. But I understand him. I respect what he's been through. I know why he is the way he is. I know why he put me through the life I had, why he felt all the punishments were necessary. Does that make it right? No. Do I love him? No. Do I respect him? I shouldn't, but I do to some extent because he is a loyal and honest person. He's just too narrow minded. He's too proud and too set in his ways. It hinders him."

Jacob snorted. "Come on, Sparrow! The man basically tortured you. How can you say that about him?"

"Because I was taught to. Because I value honesty and loyalty. Because I understand! You think like a child, Jacob. You haven't had to grow up yet. You haven't had to take responsibility for anything except your father," I talked over his failed interruption, "which I commend you for. I'm talking about responsibility for your tribe. Your heritage. Your life and your brothers' lives. You need to realize that life isn't going to stop for you. You can't go back and make her love you more. You phased, you're a wolf, and she's with him. Do something; or accept it and move on. Stop crying about the things you can't change. You need to be an adult now. So many people are depending on it, even if they don't realize it."

"I need to grow up? I haven't taken responsibility for anything? Are you shitting me?" He stood up and glared down at me and I huffed and stood up to, up, too, glaring right back. I crossed me my arms and waited for him to continue. "No, I'm not happy I phased but I am making the best of it. I know-"

"You don't know anything!" I was yelling now. I threw my arms up and let them flop to my sides. I pointed at him. "You're not making the best of anything! Do you even realize what you have? What you're missing out-"

"Missing out on?! I missed three weeks to make her see how much she loved me. I treated her just like he treated her. Trying to push her away for her safety, ignoring her, hurting her. She didn't deserve-"

"Don't you dare!" I saw movement in the doorway but I was too involved to stop. He was being such a fucking child. "She deserves it! She's with a fucking vampire for Christ's sake. She deserves to get the shit beat out of her for being so stupid. I'd rather beat the shit out of her now than burn her later."

"Shut up, you wouldn't kill your own cousin," Jacob was looking behind me and lowering his voice, he looked slightly embarrassed.

"Yes I will! I'll tie you to a damn damned tree and make you fucking watch if you're stupid enough to let her dance her way across you and into immortality. Do I need to rub your nose in your mistake and beat you with a newspaper?"

"You're such a heartless bitch."

"Call me what you want, Jacob," I took a step closer. "Stop being such a little bitch. I told you I want to help you, you said yourself you're making an ass of yourself. Step up, puppy." I stepped closer and grabbed his arm. "Come on."

His head hung and he let out a huge breath as I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him. I whispered in his ear, low enough so we wouldn't be overheard. I knew there were others here. "I'm always here to talk, Jacob. You're going to be a great man," I rose my voice to a slightly louder whisper. "It's funny how you call me a bitch before you give in."

Jacob wrapped me in a hug and laughed. "I'm sorry, sweetie," I crinkled my nose at the nickname. He laughed again and looked down at me. "Don't like the endearment?"

"Jacob Black," I growled at him.

"Yes, sweet pea?"

"You—stop!" He tickled my sides and I tried in vain to push his hands away. I was laughing hysterically and couldn't stop. My body does this weird thing when I'm tickled that causes me to not know whether to laugh or cry. So I do both. It's embarrassing.

"Jake, knock it off, man," a voice said from the doorway. "She's gonna piss herself."

I yanked out of his hold and fell backward. My back rammed against a hard, hot chest and hands encased my waist. I'd had plenty of hands on me before but these hands felt different. I stopped laughing and pulled away, exhaling, "Thank the Spirits. I was about to die," I punched Jacob in the shoulder, hard. "No thanks to you, asshole."

"Hey now, no need for name calling."

"You're one to talk, puppy." I smirked at him, knowing he hated when I called him that.

"Don't call me that!" Jacob whined.

"Okay," I heard Sam's voice and turned to him. I walked over to him and ran my hand down his arm quickly, smiling up at him. He smiled back and turned to the room, making me look around. There were three faces I didn't know. "Amusing as your fight was, both of them, it's time for Jacob and Embry to patrol."

Jacob and one of the unknown faces nodded. "I'm Sparrow," I said, glancing up at Sam and giving him an irritated frown. "It was nice of Sam to introduce me."

A laugh went through the room and Sam rolled his eyes. "That is Embry," Embry nodded his head and smiled at me. He wasn't as defined or muscular as the others in the room but he was still attractive. Perk of being a shifter, though it did nothing for your face. Luckily, these guys had nice faces. I could tell from his stance that Embry was a quieter individual. At least at first. "That's. New sentence. Jared," Sam pointed to the man sitting at the table. His hair was the same as the others' and his eyes held a green tint. He was in between the others and Embry in the muscle department, more lean than Quil. He nodded to me and smiled like Embry had. "And this is Paul," I looked in the direction Sam was pointing but Paul's head was back against the wall and his eyes were closed. I rolled my eyes and was surprised that he was almost as big as Jacob and Sam, the Alphas of the Pack, until I noticed his scent. He was damn near the same height as Sam, tall enough that I would have to look up at him if I was standing next to him. His shoulders were broad, covered with muscle, and his torso tapered down into a narrow waist. He had the V that most guys killed themselves for and even though I couldn't see them, I'd bet his legs were just as muscular and toned. His jaw was sharp and strong; masculine. Everything about him screamed man. Shifter. I could almost taste the wild coming off him, his scent was completely taken over by his animal. Sam's words confirmed it, "Our most volatile Pack member."

Paul's eyes opened and he glared at Sam. "Whatever, now that I've met Jacob's new girl can I be on my way?"

My eyebrows rose and Sam's Alpha expression crossed his face. "You weren't ordered to be here."

"Fine."

Paul left without looking at me and I turned to Sam, "What the hell was his problem?"

"He's the one who brought you inside last night," Jared spoke up. "He saw you and Jake in Sam's mind and wanted to see if you were okay."

"He sounds jealous," Quil said, a smile on his face. He was always smiling. "We all know Jacob is too obsessed with Bella."

I heard a growl outside and asked, "Why would he care?"

They all shrugged, Jared looked a little uncomfortable. "He has a thing with women being beaten." Another growl sounded from outside and my mouth made an O shape. The room was quiet for a couple seconds before I turned to Jacob.

"Okay, well I guess I'll see you later," I said.

Jacob looked at me, confusion on his face. "I have to talk to your dad, remember?"

"Oh, yeah," Jacob said.

"Alright," Quil said, stepping forward and hugging me. I didn't know why he was hugging me but I hugged him back anyway. "I'm out."

Jared stood, "Nice to meet you, Sparrow. I'm glad you're okay and here to give Jake hell." He winked at me and left with Quil. I heard a laugh outside and then silence as they ran away from the house.

"Jacob, Embry, get patrolling," Sam said. "I'm gonna get Sparrow to Charlie's. It's a Saturday so we know he's home. Jacob?"

"Yeah?" Jacob stuck his head in the door.

"Is Bella home today?" Sam asked, glancing at me. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"No," Jacob left again, looking less pleased.

"Guess we know where she is," I said. Sam and I walked outside and headed toward his house. "Do you think Charlie will mind?"

"No," Sam said immediately. "He's going to love you. Don't worry."

We walked for a few minutes before Sam said, "So how are you and Jake? First you're going at each other and then you're...well, going at each other again."

I laughed and pushed Sam away. "It really was unexpected. We were fighting before we kissed, too. About Bella and how she's got his balls in the palm of her hand. I'm making more progress than you guys are with him."

He chuckled, "You're right there," Period He looked at me with an odd expression on his face. "How do you do it? First you knock sense into me and now you're doing it with Jacob. I thought you didn't care about anyone but yourself?"

"I don't," I said. "I don't want to have to kill my cousin. I refuse to be related to a bloodsucker."

Sam was shocked. He didn't believe me when I said I'd kill her. "You'd really kill your own cousin?"

"If she's too stupid to see her mistake before she gets herself turned it will become my responsibility to fix it. Clearly she's fucking insane and has no ability to make decisions for herself." I looked at Sam and saw that he was still shocked. "Don't ever be fooled by the ease with which I laugh and enjoy things. I'm a murderer and I'm passionate about what I believe it in. My family and those I lose love come first, whether they want be to be there or not. Whether they think they're making the right decisions or not."

"You're not a murderer," Sam said, stopping me outside his house. "Not anymore."

"Yes, I am!" I knew my eyes were blazing; my animal eyes. "I will not hesitate and I do not care about someone's fucking feelings. If they're a vampire, they're dying. If they're hurting someone I love or someone they shouldn't be, they're dying. I may look docile but I'm not. Don't make the mistake of thinking I won't do what needs to be done just because someone will get hurt, physically or emotionally."

Sam nodded slowly, "Just remember we have a treaty with them." He grabbed my arm. His eyes bored into mine, "And don't get hurt. I'm attached to you, Sparrow. You're already a little sister to me and I haven't known you for a full day." I knocked the air out of him when I crashed against him and squeezed my arms around his waist.

"Thank you, Sam," I said. "For saying that. It means more than you think." I was getting attached too fast but I couldn't stop. These guys, Sam and Jacob at least, were making me love them. I hadn't felt so connected with someone in so long and for these two to worm their way into my heart was ridiculous. I laughed against Sam's chest and he looked down at me questioningly. "You guys are making me like you too much. Stop it." He laughed at me and we walked into the house.

"Emily!" Sam called. She came out of the bathroom and smiled at us. She looked nervous but masked it quickly.

"Hey," Sam kissed her, interrupting her greeting, and I waited patiently. I couldn't rush them when I knew that if I was in the same position I would be pissed if someone did so to me. Emily chuckled and blushed, her eyes flickering over me. "How'd it go?"

"Great, no problems," Sam looked at me sideways. "Although Sparrow and Jacob seem to be getting along well."

"What?" Emily asked, sitting on the couch and laying her head back on the arm rest to look at us.

"Quil and I caught them...what's the slang phrase? Getting it on? Against a tree." I rolled my eyes. He was only twenty three and acted like he was an old man.

"What?!" Emily was looking at me with wide eyes. "Jacob Black? Bella's Jacob?"

I laughed, "Yeah, it probably won't happen again. He is a good kisser though."

"Probably? I thought you were going to get them together?" Sam asked, turning to me.

"I'm going to," I bobbed my head up and down. "Jealousy also works quite well, I've heard."

Sam and Emily both laughed. They laughed hard. "What? My plan won't fail. I never fail at anything, despite what my uncle will tell you."

"No," Emily said. "We've just never thought of something so simple. You're going to be so much fun to have around."

I smiled and shrugged, "I like simple." We talked about the plans for the day, Sam and I were going to Charlie's, and Emily was going to work in her garden. She needed a hobby. I didn't say that but I know I'd be bored sitting at home all day. Maybe she was that type. Emily told us about the barbeque tomorrow night, Saturday night, and told me that Charlie, Isabella, and I were invited.

"I'll pull her here by her hair if I have to." I winked at Emily and walked out of the door with Sam. We got into his jeep and were racing toward Forks, and Charlie. I wasn't nervous, I had money to support myself until I could find a job; I knew I could count on Sam and Emily too. It was nice knowing I had friends that wouldn't cave in to my uncle when he caught up with me. Even if it meant that someone was going to get hurt. I was thankful for them in life.

"Sparrow, you always have a place with Emily and me," Sam said. "If the vampires hang around too much or you need a couch to crash on for the night, you can count on us. Just don't bring drugs and boys into my house."

"Thank you, Sam. It means the world to me that you're here for me." I whispered. He just smiled at me and we rode in silence.

The police cruiser was in the driveway so our trip wasn't for nothing. Sam and I walked up to the door and he knocked right away. I laughed at him and rolled my eyes at him. I've rolled my eyes more today than I ever have.

Footsteps approached the door at a leisurely pace. The door opened and Charlie looked at Sam then at me.

"Who's this Sam?"

Charlie and my mother didn't look anything alike. Except the eyes. They had the same eyes. Blue, just like mine. Charlie was also pretty pale. But he was in shape for his age. Ridiculously in shape. I frowned, wondering why a cop in Forks needed to be in such good shape.

"Sparrow Ryder."

"Sparrow?!" Charlie looked me over and suddenly clutched me to him.


	4. Chapter 3: Charlie

**Chapter Three: Charlie**

_**[A/N:] I know I haven't updated in forever but it's been crazy. I just started classes, got hired at Subway, and made it on the cheer team for my college. I'm going to try to start updating every two weeks but no promises right away. I WILL NOT stop writing on this story, you just might have to wait for a little bit between updates. Thank you for being so patient and I hope you like this chapter! Thanks go to my Beta Fran Osuch. :)**_

"You can definitely stay here," Charlie said, bobbing his head up and down. I clasped my hands together over his dining room table but kept my expression neutral. "There's plenty of room here. We have five bedrooms and only three of them are in use. You can pick either bedroom, or even stay in the attic. It's just sitting up there empty. There's a bathroom up there, too, miss twenty year old."

I laughed and looked around his dining room. He had an amazing home. The dining room was open to the kitchen and had varying shades of gray, stone walls and a paneled ceiling. A huge window covered the side wall and there was a long, wooden table set in front of it. Ten chairs surrounded the table, a little excessive for just Bella and Charlie, I thought, but it was a gorgeous table. There were random, simple center pieces in the form of different types of bowls with nothing in them. A chandelier hovered above the table with several white candles in a circle and wooden doors opened into the front hallway leading to the where the white front door was housed. The light, hardwood floors were smooth and while they weren't the same color as the rest of the wood, they brought the room together. Pots of plants rested on the window sill and the over all affect was a simple, rustic look.

The paneled ceiling vaulted into the connecting kitchen with exposed beams. There was a hanging chandelier in there as well but with light bulbs instead of candles. The ceiling held four lights and the walls were a light cream color. Counters were shaped in a U with a small wooden island in the center of the continued hard wood floors. Standing at the entrance to the kitchen, the double stove was on the left encased in dark counters and storage. The sink was in front of the windows, the surroundings done in a stone back splash, with the refrigerator and dishwater on the left. It was a kitchen I never would have thought of but loved anyway.

"You do have a great house. I'm not going to be twenty for another two months, Charlie," I said. "But I would love to stay here until I find a place of my own. I'm going to ask the Council in La Push if I can live there."

"Oh, posh," He said. I raised my eyebrows at his less-than-Charlie word usage and he shrugged, muttering, "Damn it, Lisa."

"Who's Lisa?" I asked, smiling at his frustration. Charlie was one of those "manly men" and was never caught doing anything that wasn't considered a man's domain.

"My wife."

Wife? I hadn't known he got married, but then again, I've been stuck in the wilderness and out of contact for a while. I guess that's why he moved and it was so nice now. "We married last summer."

"That's great, Charlie," I said. "Congratulations. I can't wait to meet her. Where is she?" I craned my neck to look around and down the hallway. Charlie laughed at me.

"She's at work," He said. "She has her own bakery shop."

"Well, I'm definitely living here now," I said. "I'll be living with a professional cook. I'm pretty sure I hit the jackpot." Sam and Charlie both laughed at me and I leaned forward, the smile falling from my face. "I do need to talk to you before you agree to let me live here. There are things you need to know."

"You already told me about Cochise and your past," Charlie said, unaware that I left out most of it. There was no way I was telling him about the extent of the abuse I went through. No one knew about it and no one would. Sam knew more than anyone and he didn't even know all of it. "I mean, there will be rules but you're family and I want to get to know you before you take off again."

"I'm only moving down the road," I chuckled and glanced at Sam before continuing. He didn't look happy with me. "I'll walk Sam to his car and come back in and explain."

"Make sure you come back, Row."

Row? No one had ever called me that before. An image of me running into Charlie's arms, soaking wet and laughing, flashed behind my eyes. Only Charlie did. My mother had, too, but her nickname for me was primarily "little bird."

"If you don't like the nickname," He paused and smiled up at me where I stood. "Well, you're shit outta luck, baby girl."

Sam laughed along with Charlie while I mock glared at them and yanked on Sam's arm, pushing him to the door. We walked to his truck in silence, his face having gone hard and intense the second I closed the door. I knew he wasn't happy that I was going to tell Charlie about the supernatural world but I had to. Charlie wasn't a stupid man and I'd bet anything he knew more than he was letting everyone believe. He was in the fucking Marines for several years, I'm sure he knew when there was something going on. It was disrespectful to bring someone or something into a man's house and not tell him. It was equally as wrong to involve someone in something, however indirectly, without telling them what could happen. Charlie was in danger from a fallout between enemies the danger of which his daughter seemed unable to comprehend. I couldn't shake my already formed opinion of the little twat.

"You do know that telling him is going to cause a lot of problems if he doesn't accept it easily," Sam said, sitting on the driver's seat sideways, facing me. "I don't want you to tell him. He doesn't need to know."

"Yes, he does," I sighed, glad he didn't go full out Alpha on my ass. "Isabella has involved him in something that could get him killed. I'm sure he knows more than you think he does but it's disrespectful to keep him in the dark. Especially when he has a vampire sneaking in his house all the time."

"How do you know he sneaks into her house?" Sam asked, pulling me closer to him. I don't think he knew what he was doing but I was used to it. Shifters all craved physical contact. We were a more sensual species; always rubbing, scenting, patting, and just touching in general. It was something we did both subconsciously and consciously.

"Because he's a vampire and that's what they do," I shrugged. "Jacob also told me about them. It's not hard to guess really. You also have told me how controlling he is."

"Okay," Sam said, his chin resting on the top of my head. "But you're going to break the treaty. You're jeopardizing my pack by telling him this. The Council that you want to ask permission from is not going to like you."

"I'm not going to say anything about you," I answered, pulling away and glaring up at him. "Just the Cullen's and me. The Council can kiss my ass."

"Like you said, he's not stupid. He's going to figure us out once you explain about shifters. You're causing problems."

Really? _I'm_ causing problems? "First of all, I'm not part of your pack—you're not my Alpha. I can do what the fuck I want," I leaned back and put my hands on my hips. "Second, I thought you knew that creating problems is what I'm best at. I'm sorry if my honesty makes you uncomfortable but I don't really give a fuck. If I'm going to live with Charlie, I'm going to tell him the truth of what I'm bringing under his roof!"

Sam rolled his eyes, "Sparrow, this is going to make things difficult with Charlie knowing. He can make it real hard on us."

"No, it won't," I replied. "The most he'll do is ignore you. The Cullen's have more to fear than you do."

Sam sighed and nodded once. He held his hand out to me and I let him pull me back into his embrace. "When this doesn't go according to your plan and you have angry council members and leeches on your ass, don't come cryin' to me."

I rolled my eyes. A few vampires and old men didn't scare me. I did what I wanted and until I got an Alpha and a mate it was going to stay that way. "I've handled worse," I stepped out of the car as Sam shifted and closed his door. His windows were down as I continued, "And Sam? I care about you, and you're important to me, but he deserves to know what his daughter is involved in. What she brings into his house. I'm not going to go behind his back that way. If it creates problems for you, I'm sorry, but that's not my problem. He's not going to tattle on you to all the humans. So tell those old men to pop some Viagra and go home to their wives."

Sam's mouth popped open in surprise and I laughed. "At least your reason is a good one," he finally muttered. "Call me later. Be careful, Sparrow. That leech hangs around her like that cloud in those depression commercials." That made me chuckle and I waved, turning to walk back to the house. I made it four steps before Sam called out to me. "Sparrow?" I turned and raised my eyebrows. "No chance you'd let me be your Alpha, huh?"

I stalked back to his truck, my eyes never leaving his as I laughed internally at how dirty he had sounded. "Do you know what you'd have to do to become my Alpha, Samuel?"

His brows furrowed and he shook his head. "I've never thought about it. My pack just fell into it." I nodded at him and rested my arms on his window sill.

"It's different if you live with and around that pack," I said. "You automatically become part of the pack you were "born" to. I was automatically part of my tribe's pack when I shifted for the first time. It just happens. But you can either take yourself out of that pack or they can kick you out." My eyes were boring into his. "I took myself out of my uncle's pack, he was Alpha, when I ran away and found that shifter community. They taught me how. It's a very painful process."

"So what do you have to do to become part of another pack?"

"You have to mate with the Alpha." His eyes widened and his head moved back from mine. A smile came over my face slowly, "Still want to be my Alpha?"

"Why do you have to do that? What if you were imprinted to one of the pack members and wanted to be part of that pack? Wouldn't the mate get extremely jealous?"

"It's weird, but no," I answered. "If one of your wolves imprinted on me and I wanted to be part of your pack he would recognize his Alpha's duty in making me part of the pack. We would have to share blood and after that we would both get this...feeling that we needed to mate. It's like something else takes over you. I've heard it's an incredible experience. After that though, you wouldn't be able to touch me because of said imprint." I winked at him and he gave me his "Oh, whatever" face. "After the mating you won't feel lust toward me unless you do on your own though. It does create a slightly deeper bond than I would have with any of the other shifters, except the imprint bond." I paused then added, "You could always make Jacob the Alpha, he's not imprinted and I know he wouldn't mind."

"Oh, ha-ha," Sam said. "He's still in high school. That's not happening."

"Well, if you want me to be in your pack, you know where to find me." I pecked his cheek and ran up to the front door, waving at him and laughing at his shocked expression. I wasn't going to become part of someone's pack unless I was imprinted with one of the members. The pain of taking myself out of another pack was something I did not want to go through again. I watched Sam pull out of the driveway and went back into the house. Charlie was in the living now. I walked over to his place on the couch.

The living room was equally as gorgeous as the rest of the house I'd seen. The ceiling was vaulted like in the kitchen with exposed beams and stone taking up the entire wall around the fireplace. A huge flat screen TV was above the fireplace and two brown, leather chairs were in front of it facing toward the couch. A huge gray rug with squares inside squares was on the floor, covering almost every inch of the wooden floor beneath. The wall to the left was a huge window and what wasn't covered with the window was painted with a cream color. They had curtains here that I'm sure they didn't close much. A small couch sat in front of the window and a white chair was to the right of the fireplace. They had a chandelier in here, too, obsession of the wife's maybe? And they had knick-knacks littered around the room and on tables. The house was masculine but had that light touch of femininity that wouldn't make a man insane. It was incredibly homey and every window I'd seen so far had a view of the beautiful landscape that blessed Forks. Also, I was pleased to smell, it seemed to be close to La Push. I could smell the wolves on the breeze when I was outside. Vamps couldn't be too happy about that, I knew.

"Hey, Charlie." He looked up at me and motioned for me to sit next to him. I plopped down next to him while he stared at me.

"Okay, what did you leave out of your story? Did you not want Sam to know?" Always the observant, blunt one Charlie was.

"Sam knows everything I'm about to tell you," I said. I turned to face him and crossed my legs. "You can't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you except those involved, okay? Promise."

Charlie eyed me suspiciously but nodded. His lips were set in a hard line and his face was void. "Okay."

"I'm a shifter and the Cullen's are vampires." Charlie's eyes narrowed and he sat there for three minutes, not giving any of his thoughts away. He was probably trying to put facts to the Cullen's and coming up short. They weren't like the vampires you see in the movies after all.

"Okay," He said slowly. "Aren't shifters the people from the stories your mother used to tell you when you were little? The tribesmen that change into animals?"

"Yes," I said, glad that I didn't have a ton of explaining to do but curious as to why he was taking this all so well. "Why are you so calm? You're not questioning it at all."

"I've seen a lot of things in my life and I know that the Cullen's weren't normal. I thought that maybe they had some weird family thing going on or maybe a disease but vampires seems to fit as well. I remember the stories from your mother and the ones Billy Black tells at those bonfires," He gave me a look. "I'm not getting any slower even if I am aging."

"That's what I told Sam," I muttered. "What questions do you have?" He sat and thought about it while I stared at him. He was taking this whole supernatural thing way better than any human that had ever been told. "You already guessed at what they were didn't you?"

"Of course," He said. "It's not hard if you pay attention and it's my job to pay attention. I may only be a small town cop now but that just means I have to pay more attention. In a town where everyone knows everything about everyone else it makes people feel comfortable. They _think_ they know everything about the people around them but there are always secrets. There are always things that people overlook. I love this town but I'm not going to pass by things just because I think I know them. I know Sam and those boys are shifters, known it for a while. I only guessed at the Cullen's. They aren't like the movie vampires but it's still pretty obvious."

"Good man." I said, smiling at him. I really missed Charlie over the years.

"Okay, so tell me about shifters."

"Shifters aren't human," I started, trying to make that distinction in his head. "Some part of us is but our animals are stronger. We are almost completely animal. The more control you get over your animal the more human you become. Sam has great control over his animal and he's more human than I thought he would be given how short of a time he's been shifting. Most shifters have quick tempers, not as quick as werewolves, their tempers are ridiculous, and we are all very pack based. We will do anything for those in our pack. We are territorial and protective. We are very physical. Shifters are animals," Charlie was nodding, taking in my every word. "But we are also like humans. We have emotions, eat, have families, everything that a human is and does is us. I'm just trying to stress the fact that our animals are also right under the surface. Our wants and needs are very human like, but we also have very animal like wants and needs. We like physical contact, running, hunting, and being outside. When we're settled down with our imprint we feel the urge to mate. A lot."

"Imprint? What is an imprint? Do you have one?"

"No, I don't," I said. Despite the many fucking people I've seen and met I haven't. "Girl shifters don't imprint, only males. But at the same time, there is always a male shifter for a female shifter. I'm not supposed to be with a human. I have a shifter mate out there I just haven't met him yet. An imprint is like a mate. To humans it would be like finding "The One." Every shifter has a mate out there, some never find theirs, some find theirs instantly."

"Sam and Emily," Charlie blurted out. I laughed and nodded my head.

"Yeah, Sam and Emily." I paused. "You can break an imprint or never have a romantic bond to your imprint if you mark another. If Sam were to mark Leah, which is biting, I'm sure you know that, it would break his imprint with Emily in a romantic way. They would still be bound to each other but in a platonic way. I know Sam still loves Leah but I don't think he would do that."

"I can see why not," Charlie said. "It would create more problems between them. Does he know that he can break the imprint?"

I shook my head, "No, but I'm going to tell him. Even if he won't do it he has the right to the option. He loves them both."

Charlie nodded. "Now tell me about vampires—about the Cullen's."

"Vampires may not have the tempers like werewolves but they're the worst out of the supernatural. I'm not just saying that because of my genetic compulsion to destroy them, either. They really are horrible," I looked into his eyes and saw his worry. His daughter was dating one after all.

"Is Bella in danger?"

"Yes," I answered. I knew she should be the one telling him this but I didn't think she would. Even after she found out he knew everything she would try to protect them from Charlie's judgment. I wasn't going to give her that advantage. "She's already been injured. When she was put in the hospital in Phoenix. She had a vampire hunting her. He broke her leg and bit her. Edward sucked out the venom so she wouldn't become a vampire," Charlie looked furious. "but she wants to be. When she went to Italy she walked right into the damned center of vampire royalty, the Volturi. Because of her knowledge of vampires, because the Cullen's told her, they said she has to die or become one of them."

"No way in hell!" Charlie growled.

"I know, Charlie," I said. "Jake is fighting for her. He is. I will now, too." I left out that I would kill her if she became a vampire. I don't think that would endear me to him.

"I'm sure as hell not letting her leave me again." I smiled at him and squeezed his hand. When my smile dropped and I pulled away his face got serious again. "There's more, ain't there?"

"Yeah," I said. "Vampires are selfish creatures. They're possessive, manipulative, and sneaky. They only care about themselves and their mates. They don't truly care for their mates, either. They are just a possession to each other. Sure, they fuck and watch out for each other, but that's because if one dies the other is in pain for a while. I don't know how to explain it, it's just something undesirable they don't like. Vampires, they are dead. That's why they're ice cold and rigid. They don't have blood running through their veins. Their bodies are constantly trying to take in blood to restore itself to a living state but no matter how much blood they drink it's not going to happen."

"The Cullen's are out there killing people?"

"No," I gritted through my teeth. "They drink from animals to "preserve life." Fucking idiots."

"That's better than killing people." Charlie said, confused at my anger.

"Yeah, let's use the excuse that they're preserving life by killing animals. Animals, who are more pure than most humans. They don't murder and rape. They don't go out of their way to make others miserable. I'd be more impressed if they took out some of those. Animals eat, shit, mate, and die. No, they don't have the brain capacity humans do but they don't deserve to be slaughtered just because there is something that exists that shouldn't." I closed my eyes, eyes that were almost permanently stuck in animal form. They were still blue but they were brighter, the pupils surrounded by white. The outside ring of black was thick around the blue. My eyes were definitely not human but the only comments I got were about how beautiful they were. I assumed people thought they were contacts. I didn't really care though, to be honest.

"Calm down," Charlie said. "I do agree with you but I'm also glad they aren't picking off the people of my town."

"They could move." I said. "Or kill themselves. But they won't," I leaned forward. "Charlie, they are dead. They don't feel like we do. They don't know love and compassion. They know lust and hatred and anger, even happiness, but not in the way you think. It all comes down to surviving for them. Surviving, feeding, and fucking. They like to play games and they like to get what they want when they want it."

"They seem nice enough, the Cullen's," Charlie said. I could tell he was trying to put my description to the test and came up short. "The way you make them seem doesn't fit."

"Vampires are good at deceiving. They crave companionship of humans. They always covet the best of being a human. They want the emotion, the ability to walk in sunlight or have children. The longer they are out of society and contact with humans the more selfish and devious they get. They all believe they are better than humans, gods, yet they want what everyone else has. _Life_. The longer they don't get what they want the more violent and possessive they get. There is nothing redeeming about a vampire. I've only met one that I actually like and that's because he is honest with himself. He knows he's selfish and manipulative. He knows that he is what I just explained to you. When I knew him he only fed on humans that, in my mind, deserved it. He didn't slaughter families or children. He went after scum. He won't kill himself, who would if they wanted to live, but he does makes the best of it. He's honest and that's why I like him. I owe him my life or I would have probably killed him a long time ago. I don't talk to him or see him anymore. Haven't in years."

"Okay, so since they only think about feeding and fucking, does that mean my daughter is having sex with a corpse?" Ahh, there it was. The reason Charlie was red in the face. Bella.

"I don't know but I'll be able to tell," I pointed to my nose. "I can usually smell that kind of thing," I let my head fall back on the sofa. "Charlie, she can get pregnant."

"What? I thought you said they can't have children."

"Female vampires cannot conceive. But for some reason, males are able to impregnate others despite being dead. No one knows how or why, just that it happens. The births are disgusting. The baby will tear apart the mother's stomach, breaking her bones and killing her in the process. I've seen it." My eyes were closed now, thinking about what the Volturi wanted from me. I knew without a doubt they would try to create a hybrid. They were fooling themselves if they thought I wouldn't kill myself first.

"That's it, she's not going anywhere near him!" Charlie stood abruptly while I opened my eyes to look at him. He was pacing back and forth. I heard the door open and close, another heart beat entered the house and was making its way to the living room.

"Dad?" Bella must be home.

"Get your ass in here." Charlie stood in front of the couch and when she came into view I was surprised at her appearance. She didn't look anything like I thought she would. She was very pale, almost the color of her vampire coven, and her long, mahogany hair fell down her back in waves. She had dark brown eyes, from her mother I assumed, and she was small. She had to be only five foot three in height and she was skinny. Too skinny. "Sit down."

Her face was puzzled as she looked at me and sat on the opposite end of the couch. "What's going on?"

"Your cousin, Sparrow, is going to live with us for a while," He waved his hand in my direction and she nodded at me, smiling a little. Her eyes went back to her dad after mumbling, "Hi."

"And you're grounded until I say otherwise." He continued. He was glaring at her and his arms were crossed on his chest.

Her eyes widened. "Why?"

"Because you're dating a fucking corpse and I don't approve!" He screamed.

"I-" she turned to look at me. "You told him? Why would you tell him? You have no-"

"I do, too!" I snarled. "You brought all this shit into your father's home, put him in danger, and don't tell him? You're being a disrespectful, little idiot and I'm putting a stop to it now."

"Sparrow," Charlie gave me a look and I crossed my arms, not taking my eyes off her. "She's right, Bella. How could you do this to me? To yourself? Do you even know what you're involved in? Some of the things she's told me...it's not natural. _They_ aren't natural. You can't be serious about this."

"You sound just like Jake!" Bella huffed, her eyes fell on me again. "What did you tell him? A bunch of lies?" She turned back to her father. "Dad, they aren't bad people. They are kind and they love me. They would never hurt anyone. Carlisle works at the hospital for Christ's sake!"

"Which is wrong!" Charlie said. "They shouldn't even exist. They are not nice and they don't love you. They are using you for something."

"They are! Just because they're vampires doesn't mean anything is wrong with them. They can't help that they are what they are. Just like Jake and the pack can't help what they are." Bella was on the verge of crying and I rolled my eyes. Stupid.

"They aren't," I said, her eyes swiveled to me. "You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into. Vampires aren't nice and they don't love. They are the most selfish and disgusting creatures I've ever met. No, some do not chose to be that way but that doesn't take away from the fact that they are dead. They don't feel, they don't care about anything. They care only about themselves and when they have one, their mate. Even their feelings for their mate are selfish."

"No, you're wrong. You've never even met them. You know nothing about them." Bella was not listening. She believed everything they told her and she was gone. Completely fucking bat shit crazy and she was not giving up.

"They don't even have souls, you idiot!" I was standing now and towering over her. Charlie was watching me with his mouth open. "They are dead! They have no blood, no feelings, no humanity! They may put up a good act but that's all it is! A fucking act. They like playing games. They like making stupid little twats like you believe they are loving and care and you'll never even know until they kill you or they turn you. I've seen it happen over and over. If you think you're anything different than a play thing you're out of your ever loving mind! Wake the fuck up, princess, because you're going to get yourself killed."

"No! Don't say that about them," Bella stood up, her face red and tears streaming down her tears. "They have souls. They have beautiful souls. They would never do anything to hurt me like that."

I laughed. I threw my head back and laughed. Charlie and Bella both looked at me like I was insane, but seriously. They would never hurt her? The same vampires that took her in, got her involved with another psycho vampire, left her in the middle of the fucking woods, and then took her straight to vampire central? "They don't care about you. Stop thinking about your fucking self-esteem and that other stupid shit. This isn't about that. This is about how you let them in and they destroyed your life. They led you straight to the fucking vampire headquarters. I know they did that on purpose. Edward wasn't going to kill himself, he was luring you there. Which means they will turn you, whether you want them to or not. Get it through your skull, damn it, they do not care."

Bella was bawling now, clearly not seeing reason. I just stood there, watching her. Let the bitch cry. She was being fucking retarded. I understood that she thought they were good, but everyone told her they weren't. Her father, without even truly knowing what they were, didn't like Edward, at least. All her other friends told her to stay away, that they were no good. But she didn't listen. She was going to put them above all others.

"How could you do that to Charlie, Bella? How could you let him think you were dead while you became a vampire? How can you stay with Edward when he's a controlling prick? They make every decision for you. You're not even your own person anymore," I sneered at her. "I bet if he told you to strip and lay down you'd do it in a heartbeat."

Charlie put a hand on my shoulder with a mumbled, "Sparrow," and Bella looked up at me, her face red and tears everywhere. "Shut up! You only know the twisted version from Jake's lips. He hates them, will say anything to have someone else against them. Edward would never do that to me. He won't have sex with me. He says it's too dangerous. He _cares_ about me."

"Vampires have sex with humans all the time," I said, smiling at her pained expression. "They don't hurt them unless they want to. No, he doesn't have sex with you for a reason. Either he has someone else doing that for him, or he doesn't want to get you pregnant."

"Vampires can't have children." Bella whispered.

"The males can. Which means they don't want you to die. They have plans for you," I told her, uncaring of her feelings. If I had known that I was tearing her _world_ out from under her I probably would have laughed and been harsher with her. As it was, Charlie was here and I knew he would tell me to shut up. Being the respectful person I am, I would fall silent. Unless she pissed me off enough. "Or, like I said, he has no patience for you and is having someone else."

"No!" Bella put her hands over her ears like a child and I scrunched my face up at her. Really? _That's_ how you're going to keep the big, bad panther from ripping into you. Verbally, of course. "He wouldn't do that to me."

I laughed at her. "Yes, he would. I bet he does. I'm sure I can figure out for you. Want me to?" The phone started ringing and Charlie looked between us before settling his eyes on me.

"Can you promise me you'll play nice?"

"Of course, Charlie," I said with wide eyes. He narrowed his and went down the hallway to answer the phone.

"Why are you doing this? Why do you hate them so much?" Bella whispered, hugging her knees to her chest.

"Because you're being a stupid, little fuck and need rescuing," I said calmly, sitting down in one of the leather chairs. Bella's head snapped up and I could hear a bone crack. Her eyes were on fire and she was glaring at me. "There! Now why don't you stand up for yourself like this with Edward? Why don't you show him when you're displeased?"

"I don't argue over stupid things! Why does it matter to you whether or not I become a vampire?"

"I will not be related to a fucking vampire!" I snarled at her, leaning forward. "I'm not going to let you become a soulless, sparkling bitch without a fight. Jacob is too worried about hurting your feelings but I'm not. I don't give a rat's ass about your damned feelings and I will beat the shit out of you as a possible option of knocking sense back into you."

Her mouth was wide open. Her face went red and her anger returned full force as her mouth snapped shut. "Listen, I don't care if you're family or not. You can't talk to me like that. I don't know what happened in your life to make you hate vampires so much but you're not going to ruin my happiness because you're bitter," Her feet hit the ground and she leaned forward. "Don't take your sad experiences out on me because you didn't get immortality or the man you wanted."

"Excuse the fuck out of you?" I said slowly, my patience, if you can say I have any, completely snapped. "I've never had the wish to become a vampire and never will I. Every vampire knows they do not have a soul and I would prefer to have one, not be damned. I'm a _shifter_ and while I may not be completely human at least I'm close," Bella stood and turned to walk out of the room. I rushed at her, grabbing her arms and made her face me. Her startled eyes glared up into mine as she struggled futilely in my grasp. "I am not taking any sad experiences out on vampires, they give me enough of a reason to hate them on their own. I've been through things that would _kill_ your anorexic ass and yet I'm not the one going suicidal. _You are_."

"I'm not suicidal," She spat. "I love him. I want to spend as much time as I can with him."

I shook her hard. "Either way your time is limited," My eyes bored into hers, my senses completely focused on her. "If you come to your senses you won't have much longer with him and if you don't I won't hesitate in killing you."

Her mouth popped open and she spluttered, "N-no, you wouldn't do that!"

"I killed for less," I said, enjoying the amount of fear enhancing her scent. It was addictive. "You're family and I refuse to let your insane idea that he loves you ruin your life. I will fix your mistake."

"We're leaving," She whispered, casting her eyes down. "There won't be any reason to-"

"You're my fucking family!" I screamed, pushing her away from me. I was subconsciously aware of the small audience in the door way but as usual, I didn't care. My temper was too far gone. I was done being patient. I was done trying to convince her. "I don't care where you go or how far I have to go to find you, I will rip your fucking head off before I let you kill, animal or human, or let you destroy your own soul. Don't you think I would leave the topic alone if I were lying? Do you think my reaction would be this strong for someone I barely even know and don't like? Fuck no! I'm done trying to convince you that you're wrong. You are and I am going to make your life a living hell until you figure it out or I kill you. Got that?"

She was crying. Great heaves of breath were going in to and out of her lungs at an erratic pace. "_Do you ever stop crying?!" _I knew I was being harsh but she was—I disliked her. She's just like all the other humans who threw their lives away to be immortal and beautiful. If you count sparkling like a fairy princess beautiful. It made me want to throw up, personally.

"Sparrow," the deep bass boomed in the tall room and my head snapped to the doorway. "That's enough for now."

My chin lifted and I crossed my arms but remained quiet. He may not be my Alpha but he was someone I respected and I didn't think Bella could live through much more. Sam, Jared, and Paul were standing there, Sam's expression hard and Jared's shocked. Paul looked like he was restraining a smile. He was watching Bella but when his eyes slid to mine my mind went blank.

_Fuck._

Looks like Sam was going to be my new Alpha after all.


End file.
